You’re in business to make money

"If you’re in business to make money, you’ve got it dead wrong. You’re not in business to make money. You’re in business to meet needs."

When I started out in marketing, I thought this was true. But, over the years, I’ve realized that it’s not quite true. It should sound something more like:

"You’re not in business to make money. You’re in business to meet needs in a profitable way."

You see, if you focus just on meeting client needs, you’ll have happy clients, but you may not have a sustainable business model. You definitely need to find a fit by selling to the right clients. But sometimes you need to fire a few customers. If you get wound up in serving the needs of customers who aren’t profitable, you’re going to have a hard time breaking even. And then you won’t be able to meet anyone’s needs.

Remember: you’re in business to make money. If you want to be able to meet the needs of your clients, you have to consider return on investment. Ultimately, meeting the needs of your clients means making sure that you’re able to help yourself, too.